Inspiration and photo lessons from professional photographers and the Tamron technical team.

Food

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Now, it is probably no surprise that there are plenty of farmers markets in California. But the size of the Mercado market in Little Italy was one of the bigger ones I've seen around. I am told that it only started four years ago and now there are over 130 vendors on any given Saturday. It stretches five blocks long (both sides) going on Date Street from Kettner to Front Street. Of course that is only one of about a dozen farmers markets you will find on Saturdayin San Diego.

Obviously, with a market of this size there is so much to shoot. There are cheeses and meats and produce and prepared foods and flowers and crafts. There is also plenty of opportunity to sample a lot of what you might shoot!

With so much to choose from sometimes it becomes difficult to know where to start. I suggest trying to make a little series, it helps focus your attention with a self assignment. This is often a helpful exercise to improve your technique. That day I was traveling light and had taken only my Tamron SP 17-50 f2.8 on a D7000 body. With one lens and one camera, I focused mostly on textures catching some nice ones on fruits, vegetables and flowers. I usually tried to fill the frame with whatever the subjects were. I was less interested in where I was and more interested in the forms of the subjects. In all of the images the color is important but when it is too saturated the textures get lost. I processed the images by increasing the contrast (which adds visual depth) and then manipulating the saturation, so that the color would not overwhelm the photograph.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

With all of my postings, a common thread involves searching for inspiration. Another personal goal I find is to photograph ordinary objects in a new and creative way. The examples in this blog are great examples of these two concepts. In honor of our first real snowfall in Minnesota, I found inspiration in the color white. Often if I'm stuck, or feeling uninspired, I'll simplify an idea into a word, or concept (i.e. white, or lines, or macro, or night photography). Then I can focus on how to get the best photographs that portray that idea. I also chose to focus on macro photography because I haven't played with my Tamron SP 90mm F2.8 Macro in some time. If you can't tell by now, these photographs are not photos of Pebble Beach, CA. Although I have a trip in January to California that I'm looking forward to. To start, I looked around for things that are white and found some coconut M&Ms at the grocery store. Flipping them all over gave me a repetitive shape to fill the frame. The candies also had these delightful palm trees and umbrellas that I did not expect. This is where the name "Pebble Beach" came from. The palm trees and round repetitive shapes reminded me of a rocky beach. Each of these three photographs take the same scene, working with composition to achieve three different photographs. When photographing white objects, all cameras will meter to a neutral grey. It is important to over expose slightly, giving the white values their full brightness. The exposure for these three shots are ISO 800, F11 @ 1/40th of a second. With an exposure compensation of +0.07. Using a higher ISO allowed me to handhold these images, if I were to try it again, I would prefer to shoot at ISO 100 for better detail, while using a tripod. In the last photograph, I drew in my beach bum for an added bit of whimsey. A sunny scene while I'm inside drinking my hot cocoa. Thank you for reading, and as always, keep your eyes open for inspiration.

Monday, October 03, 2011

I sometimes find myself drawn to images that are seemingly surreal; ones that look as if they have been manipulated (other then by virtue of using a camera.) In a way, every image is a manipulation. But some appear to be more manipulated then others. My thoughts wander to the surrealist painter René Magritte and his use of the apple as an icon. There was one painting in particular that was simply an apple in a room, however the apple was so large that its mass was like a nightmare. The apple displacing space and it's relationship was terrifying. Sometimes, he would paint apples as if they were floating. And this leads me to the photograph above. In my yard, there are a dozen apple trees which decided to bear fruit. In past years, the blossoms were destroyed by frost or there were not enough bees to pollinate the flowers. Many of these apples look more like heirloom tomatoes in that the skins are textured and the apples are quite irregular by supermarket standards. But these peculiarities I find attractive. Between the texture of the skin and my propensity to surrealism, I wanted to see if I could create an image that might embody both. The apple appears to almost be floating, but it is simply the relationship between the background and the lighting. Normally one would expect the light to come from the top and shadow to be underneath the apple as it would usually sit. The illusion is created by placing the apple on its back and and using window light from several different sides to illuminate it while photographing it from above. The image was shot with the Tamron SP 28-75 f2.8 lens at f5.6 1/60 ISO1600.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Sometimes you find photographs where you least expect them. I had not expected to take out my camera the afternoon that I made potato leek soup for the second time. Actually, it was specifically the second time because the first time I made it, the recipe called for two pounds of leeks. Which I weighed and chopped only to realize, before making it that it was two pounds of leeks with the stems on and not off which is how I weighed them. It just happens to be the difference between six and three leeks. Which led me to store the excess leeks in a bowl and the next day to make another batch with the "left-over" chopped leeks, which led me to this photograph.

On the afternoon I dumped the leeks out of the bowl and added them to the butter and shallots, this scene just as you see it, was staring back. At this point, it seemed quite obvious, it was meant to be photographed.

I grabbed my Nikon with the Tamron 28-300 VC lens on it, zoomed it to 120mm and shot the image at f5.6 at 1/20 of a second, ISO 400. The Vibration Compensation was on and in the case of this picture made the difference, helping me to get a clear image without a tripod using the available light in the kitchen.

If you ask me whether I would make it again, I would tell you that it is quite likely. Not only because it was quite tasty, but because now I have a photograph to remind me of the first and second time I made potato leek soup.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Just a couple of miles south of Peninsula, Ohio; deep inside the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, on the corner of Bolanz and Riverview roads, close beside the river and the heavily used bike and hiking path, sits another of the main summer and fall draws for the parks millions of visitors.

Rarer than ever today, a small family farm survives deep inside the park by filling a unique niche. It grows and sells some of the world’s best corn and fresh produce: really fresh.

Through nearly 70 years, the Szalay family has farmed the rich bottom land of the Cuyahoga and sold corn from a road side stand. Once the Park surrounded them and the bike path ran behind the farmhouse, they expanded the produce stand they ran and created a true farm market, selling the corn and vegetables they grew in the fields nearby and hundreds of other exquisite items from around the world.

Today, thousands of people flock to Szalay's to pick up corn just minutes from the stalk and a wide selection of other fresh vegetables, fruits, baked goods and specialty foods. Or they come in for a lemonade, or cider, or fresh baked corn, sausage sandwiches, baked turkey drumsticks or an ice cream cone (or two). Or they come just to take a break from the trail. They come by car. They come by bike. They hike in. They come by every way and from everywhere.

From the outside it all looks pretty benign. A classic farm house, a pole barn building used as an open air store. A hundred or so cars in the parking lot… with dozens of people scurrying about. The approach is outfitted with few traditional log chairs and tables and some rather unique seating arrangements (on covered farm wagons, covered swings, metal forged wagon-wheel rocking chairs with tractor seats, huge ‘family size’ swings that hold 6 people). Kids climb onto and off converted corn wagons and other unique serving areas (some think it's more fun than the circus).

Inside, and under the awning, things change fast. The place is a riot of color. The foods vary in every way: size, shape and color. The produce comes from as far away as South Africa, and as close as 100 yards from the stand. Dozens of people labor constantly restocking bins with hundreds of different items; cooking sandwiches and corn and piling soft serve into cones for the kids, big and small. Wagon loads of corn are being snapped up by shoppers and are constantly rotated and refilled.

The Szalays were nice enough to allow me to photograph things and in a few minutes I got an eyeful of color, shapes and sizes.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

I recently was contacted by a well established Mexican food franchise in the hopes of creating appetizing images for menus and poster displays.

In the intial meeting all I had to show were beautiful images of people, both classic and commercial. The immediate response I received from the client was, “Where is your food photography?” I had shot some product and still photography, but my background in food photography was very limited. The honest truth I mentioned was, “ I'm not a food photographer, but I will guarantee the same quality as you see in my portrait work – and if you don’t like the work, you don’t have to pay. People always like that line. Lol. “ The job is yours,” she responded. My approach to the job was to treat it as I would a commercial client. First things first, I did my homework. I believe every job or endeavor gives us the opportunity to learn and broaden our horizons.

Though I was not a specialist, soon after the job I was on my way to becoming one. I did a lot of research in regards to food. I also asked a lot of questions to my client determining what her expectations were, what style or feel she wanted to capture. I even gave her homework to pull out tear sheets from magazines to show me what she liked. This also helped me study the images and see what approach I was going to take in regards to lighting and lens choices.

THE LOOK

In a second meeting with my client, she determined she wanted the viewer to be drawn to the front of the plate and blur the background. She also wanted festive colors, which was the style of the restaurant. The look also needed to be a bit classy. With this in mind, I got to work with Gary Parry, our stylist and studio manager. The first thing we considered was to propose a food stylist to our client. This secured a specialist to make sure the food would be at its most appetizing and freshest appearance to be photographed. From brushing olive oil on the food for shine to substituting half frozen mayonaise instead of sour cream were some of the tricks used by the stylist. Painted grill streaks on the chicken and steak fajitas were applied to enhance our images. In food photography, another point I quickly learned was, “timing is everything”. You have to be prepared with all lights in place due to the short life span of food. Melted cheese loses shape when it cools, lettuce will wilt quickly. Steak and chicken will also dry quite quickly. All test exposures should be done prior to your session. There will not be a lot of time to adjust your lighting once the food is ready to shoot. Other factors to consider is composition, plates, color, fruit and vegetables to help frame and enhance your shot.

LIGHTING AND LENS CHOICE

This is the most technical aspect in getting the food to look its best. Most food photographers use strobe using mainly a form of backlighting with some fill from the front, whether utilizing fill cards or grids for spot lighting the focus of the shot. I decided to use the same principles and applying them to natural lighting. I also was limited to shooting on the outside patio. I decided to setup a table with a white matte plexiglass sheet to stage all of the plates for the day. I placed the table making sure the light would be from behind. I placed another white matte sheet of plastic right behind the table to soften the light by about 3 stops from its ambient reading. This also created a very soft but crisp light. I finished my setup by placing the same sheets to the left and right of the table. In essence creating a large wraparound softbox with a more specular quality of light. This setup can also be done with hot lights instead of the sun. To get the detail and the fill from the front view of the plate, we used a combination of silver or gold reflectors, depending on the food and plate colors, and we also used mirrors and a flashlight on a few of the images.

As far as lens choice, I placed the camera on a tripod using two angles. One very low and one high. The fix position also helps to maintain a constant look for future advertising and menu design. The last thing the client wants is food shot from all different angles. I decided to use the TAMRON 17-35mm wide lens to add more interest to the perspective of the images. It also allowed me to get very close in on the images without having to omit most of the nice set design. I also used it for the final shot of all the plates laid out on the table with all the nice details. I was very impressed with the clarity and sharpness of this lens, being that my depth of field for most of the shots were on the shallow side. Considering that the client wanted to draw the viewer into the front of the image and gradually fade the focus, I decided my priority was to shoot at a depth of field of f4. This gave me a shutter speed of 125th of a second. The ISO was 125.

This setup, though maybe a less conventional approach, I found to be quite versatile. Consistantcy was of the utmost importance. For this reason I kept my f-stop the same and used the same two camera angles. What I did vary as the light changed (the sun moving throughout the day), was to move the physical table and add or subtract sheets of acrylic for diffusion.

All in all, it was a fun project and I accomplished this with a good team behind me. Could never do this alone. Not to mention we were all fed quite well.